San Diego, Ca – The 2008 Crew Classic saw one of the biggest fields in recent years with competition very tight. The Frosh/Novice 8 failed to qualify for the grand final and raced in the Saturday afternoon petite final. Orange Coast College controlled the race from the start establishing an open water lead in the first 500 meters. The Bruins hung with the trailing pack to the 1000 meter mark when the crews began to separate. OCC was the winner, 6:21.6. UCLA finished 6th in a time of 6:40.21. “We wanted to finish higher but this was by far our best race of the year, said 5-seat Kyle Ransom, we can definitely build on this one.”

On Sunday morning, having been knocked out of the grand final by Cal and Stanford, the JV8 lined up for a petite final in which all six crews had posted times within a couple of seconds of each other in the heats. The Bruins had a great start and took an early 3 seat lead. By the first 500 meter mark UCLA had pushed out to an open water lead on the field. “When we shifted down to base I could see the entire field behind us, recalled Stoycho Stoychev, it was awesome!”

The Bruins continued to push the pace in the second 500 meters and opened up a boat length of open water on the second place crew from UC-San Diego. “The 3rd 500 was really hard, said 7-seat Brian Lee, Jennie just kept calling 10’s and I was just taking one stroke at a time to hold our lead.”

The field could not catch the pace the Bruins had set as UCLA cruised to a 4.5 second win over second place UC-San Diego followed by Santa Clara and Orange Coast. “They really surprised me, said Coach Mokha, I have seen glimmers of speed in practice but that row even impressed me.”

The day ended with the Varsity 8 going for the Cal Cup trophy. Orange Coast College had the fastest time in the heats and was the crew to beat. The Pirates established an early lead off the start with UCLA sitting a close second. As the crews approached the 1000 meter mark OCC had extended its lead to ¾ of a length over UCLA followed closely by Lehigh, UC- Davis and Minnesota. “We knew Coast had a fast first 1000 so we just wanted to stay close and make our push in the third 500,” said Coach Mokha. But OCC just pulled way from the field and controlled the race to the finish winning convincingly in 6:01.8. “We had a few little mistakes in the first 500 meters but overall we rowed a pretty good race,” said 6-seat Martin Reschke.

The Bruins finished second, 6:12.05, closely followed by Minnesota 6:14.5 and UC-Davis. “We were beaten by a better crew today, stated Coach Mokha, we will have to get back to work and try to make up the difference.”

The Bruins will see many of their Crew Classic opponents at the Newport Invitational hosted by Orange Coast College on April 19th.